“Whoosh… splat—”

The sudden sound of crashing waves echoed through the study.

Yun Zhen, who was in the middle of brainstorming for her new book, frowned slightly and minimized the Word document on her computer.

Her eyes scanned the icons on the screen. The browser wasn’t open, and there were no pop-up windows from any software on her desktop.

It didn’t seem like the sound came from the computer. Could it be her phone?

Yun Zhen rummaged through the scattered writing materials on her desk, found her phone, and unlocked the screen. She carefully checked it but found nothing unusual.

The sound of the waves continued, not loud but distinctly clear.

Standing up, Yun Zhen followed the sound, trying to locate its source.

She looked under the desk, by the window, and around every corner of the study. It wasn’t long before her eyes landed on the bookshelf, and she was taken aback.

She quickly walked over to the bookshelf, her face filled with confusion at the scene before her.

This bookshelf was newly purchased two months ago. Made of gray solid wood, it exuded a sense of stability and subtle elegance. The entire bookshelf was 3.3 meters long, 35 centimeters wide, and 2.2 meters high, occupying most of the wall.

The bookshelf was divided into four columns and five rows, with a total of four double glass doors. Apart from two long drawers at the bottom left and three large cabinet doors at the bottom right, the rest of the bookshelf consisted of transparent compartments for books.

The sound of the waves was coming from a rectangular compartment in the center of the bookshelf, which was displaying an incredible scene.

Inside the compartment was an area submerged by floodwaters, appearing to be part of a street.

The houses and tall buildings on the street had already collapsed, with ruins soaking in the murky, brownish water. Waves continued to pour in from the edges, washing debris, household items, and garbage everywhere.

There were no people in the entire area, only the occasional fish or small animal carcass floating on the water.

It looked like a place that had suffered a severe natural disaster, and the scene was so realistic that it sent chills down Yun Zhen’s spine.

“Has the furniture industry reached this level of competition now? A bookshelf that comes with a holographic projection?” Yun Zhen was amazed and wondered why the seller hadn’t mentioned this earlier.

She gently opened the glass door and reached out to find the switch for the holographic device.

As her fingers neared the edge of the bookshelf, a sudden electric shock-like pain caught her off guard. Before she could react, a semi-transparent floating screen suddenly appeared, displaying a line of bold text:

[Dear Prospective Host, would you like to bind with the Time-Space Interaction System?]

Startled by this sudden change, Yun Zhen took two steps back, staring at the floating screen, too scared to move.

After a moment, she slowly extended her hand and cautiously clicked “No.”

The screen didn’t insist and disappeared immediately after being rejected.

Yun Zhen finally breathed a sigh of relief and began to calm down, sorting through her chaotic thoughts.

As a calm, rational, and composed adult, she couldn’t just randomly bind herself to something with an unknown origin.

Although she didn’t know how this strange system ended up in her bookshelf, she decided to ignore it.

Whether it was some human prank or a surreal, sci-fi-like anomaly, as long as she refused to cooperate, it couldn’t control her.

Yun Zhen crossed her arms, coldly observing the flooded world within the bookshelf, while her mind raced, seriously considering the possibility of sealing off or dismantling this compartment.

Just then, the scene in the bookshelf changed.

A motorboat drifted in from somewhere, carried by the floodwaters into the waterlogged area within the bookshelf.

On the boat sat five young people, all looking exhausted. Judging by their age, they were probably university students who hadn’t graduated yet. They were all wearing matching uniforms with a very futuristic and trendy style.

Yun Zhen’s curiosity was piqued, and she cautiously inched closer to the bookshelf, careful not to touch it in case the floating screen popped up again.

She squinted, trying to make out the faces of the five people, hoping to recognize at least one or two of them.

“What movie is this holographic projection playing? Why are the scene and the actors so unfamiliar?” Yun Zhen was puzzled, wondering if big-budget productions now used rookie actors, given that she hadn’t watched any dramas or movies in a while.

At that moment, a tall, rugged-looking man with a buzz cut on the motorboat sighed. He pointed to another boy lying unconscious in the corner and said to the others with a look of helplessness, “We’re running low on food and water, and we don’t have any medicine to save him. He’s barely hanging on. Let’s just give him a ‘water burial’ today.”

The boy he pointed to was strikingly handsome, but his eyes were tightly shut, as if in a coma. His flushed cheeks indicated a high fever, his lips were pale and cracked, and it was clear that he hadn’t eaten in days.

The others on the boat glanced at him with pity, but no one made any move to save him.

At this point, even a sip of clean water was a precious resource that people would fight over.

Healthy people were barely managing to take care of themselves, so who had the strength to look after a sick person?

A boy wearing glasses looked hesitant and said, “But he got hurt saving us, and considering his family’s background… If his family finds out, we’ll be finished.”

A sturdy-looking boy responded unhappily, standing up to loudly refute him, “So what if he’s some rich kid? What are you so afraid of? As long as we don’t say anything, who would know what happened today? A lot of people died in the floods and tsunamis. No matter how powerful his family is, how will they find someone in all this dirty water and debris?”

The only girl in the group softly agreed, “We don’t have a choice. The food we have left won’t last two days, and everything nearby has been scavenged. We haven’t even seen the rescue team. Let’s keep his suitcase. Pei Hao is so kind; he’d understand.”

The sturdy-looking boy nodded quickly, “Yeah, yeah, we should keep his suitcase. Pei Hao guarded it so tightly; there might be something good inside! It could save a life if we keep it, but it would just go to waste if we toss it in the water.”

The four people on the boat reached a consensus and immediately started taking action.

The girl guarded the suitcase to prevent Pei Hao from waking up and grabbing it, while the other three boys worked together to lift him, ready to throw him into the water while it was still deep.

Pei Hao suddenly regained consciousness and tried to fight back with all his strength. However, his body was too weak, and soon the three of them pinned him down by his arms and legs.

He opened his mouth, trying to say something, but his breath was too weak to make a sound. His bloodshot eyes were filled with resentment and unwillingness as he watched his so-called friends prepare to throw him into the water—

Yun Zhen, who had been watching from outside the bookshelf, furrowed her brows. Her heart was suddenly pounding violently, and a wave of intense fear surged through her, compelling her to reach out, desperate to save the boy from falling into the water.

Of course, the result was another shock of pain, and the familiar pop-up screen reappeared, asking if she wanted to bind with the system.

Seeing the critical situation, Yun Zhen, in a moment of heated urgency, agreed.

Immediately, a blinding white light flashed, and the invisible barrier that had previously stopped her was no longer an obstacle.

The floating screen displayed a series of notifications:
[Congratulations, Host, on successfully binding with the Time-Space Interaction System!]

[The current connected world is: Post-Apocalyptic Disaster World.]

[During the novice protection period, all energy consumption will be temporarily covered by the system. Please work hard to collect…]

Yun Zhen, focused solely on saving the boy, didn’t have time to finish reading the notifications. She reached out and pulled Pei Hao from the filthy, raging floodwaters. After carefully checking him over and confirming that his chest was still rising and falling, she let out a heavy sigh of relief.

Wait a minute! How was she able to touch a character from a holographic projection?

The sensation, the wetness, the temperature—it all felt so real. The dirty water on her hands even dripped onto the floor outside the bookshelf.

Yun Zhen stared in shock at the boy in her hands, utterly stunned, unsure if everything was reality or a dream.